I wanted to pass by the one because I was looking for some office accessories, like a card holder, pen holder, that sort of items. I wasn’t sure where to go and I asked a friend and he told me to pass by The One. Since I had sometime on my hands decided to stop by and check out what they had. After a thorough walk through I realized they don’t have any accessories for an office desk, all they have is for homes. What I do like is the picture frames they sell, but my taste of frames wouldn’t fit with the current furniture I live with. I thought because they sell desks they might sell accessories, but it seems I was out of luck. I just wanted good quality office items, better then the flimsy generic items they sell for office desks at most stores.
As I was walking through I was snapping away, a few things I liked just walking around but they weren’t too comfortable. Some items seemed worth it, but I’m not the type of person to like leather, it just doesn’t work for Kuwait.
The other day I passed Marina Mall because I wanted to pass through The One, and as I was going through I thought I would see whats going on with Virgin. To describe Virgin in word it would “Depressing”, I couldn’t believe the state it has reached. I don’t blame the Virgin management for the state of Virgin, I blame the Ministry of Information for killing a business. They want people to buy copyrighted items, but they won’t let the places with the copyrighted material to sell. The MOI really has the has the best business model I have seen yet, they managed to kill a good business. No other media business will open again in Kuwait like Virgin did, Virgin in all the other countries is thriving because of the diverse products they have, and it is enjoyable to go there to browse.
If ever you got the feeling of Depression from a place then it would be from the Virgin Store in Kuwait, which will cease to exist in due time. The walls are all white, they moved the items together in a way to fill the place up, but it doesn’t really help. Now thats one business shutdown, and other clothing stores opened in its place. We won’t be seeing any major media store opening in Kuwait anytime soon, be it books, music, or movies.
I went to Marina Mall yesterday to check out something at The One, and I was walking I decided to take a look at the Mac and More store to see what they might have. I was surprised they already had the iPod Touch, and they had a nice selection of other items. Whats good is that they have a large selection of accessories for the Apple Products and thats the best part of them.
Prices:
iPod Touch 16 GB: 145 KD
iPod Touch 8 GB: 115 KD
iPod Nano 8 GB: 75KD
Before placing my Vehicle Sound System order from Amazon I did the usual and searched the local market for what they might have and what they don’t have. I wasn’t really that surprised, but I did searches for all the serial numbers that I got for the different brands of Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine, JBL, and a lot of other kinds I didn’t even know. I always go Shara’e Al Zeena in Shuweikh because that is where most of those places are together and I went shop to shop asking questions. I would ask a few questions about the products that they have then I ask detailed questions to test them, after a few days of searching I only managed to find one shop which is decent and has some quality products, I will be purchasing the high gauge wires locally as well as all the terminations.
I found some interesting information, most of the audio products that we have in Kuwait are from Hong Kong and Australian standards, nothing was from the US Markets except for a few stores which brought them as one off pieces for show. They only have the low end products all priced from 10 KD up to 45 KD, nothing was more then that. The reason for this is that most customers in Kuwait go for low quality items and they want the cheapest combination possible. Those who do want quality items tend to order from outside of Kuwait because of the lack of availability i Kuwait. The vehicle modification market is a huge market, but because of the lack of quality it isn’t being capitalized on, and since the products are cheap the quality of service will remain low.
This is really getting frustrating, even when you want to go see a movie in Kuwait its quite difficult. The Kiosk at Cinescape wasn’t working right and it felt like it was going crazy and trying to spit out the damn card they sell. I don’t understand why they haven’t improved the quality of the pop-corn that they have at the Cinema, the ones you buy from the Co-op or Sultan Center tastes a lot better then what they have.
There is one thing I can’t blame the theaters for doing which is separating the male’s from the families. These kids are animals to say the least and they have no manners. The ones in front of us wouldn’t shut up, and the ones behind us might have as well given us a damn massage because they kept shaking the seats.
Its also very frustrating that they are censoring the movies at this point. They should at least apply age restrictions on movies and not let these kids into R rated movies. There is no source of entertainment and they make it difficult for people to enjoy these movies when they really want to see them.
Its funny during Eid and all these occasions I think MTC/Zain and Wataniya make piles of money from all the text messages being sent to every other person they know in their phone book. Some people go to their phone and click select all for the names then they hit send. They send a text message to everyone they know which is insane. I stopped texting people from last year during these occasions, I prefer to call.
The numbers add up very quickly, and during this time they make a nice amount before the end of this month.
First off Eid Mubarak people.
This really only happens in Eid, everyone goes into a frenzy doing something. I found out it was Eid from my barber, he gave me a call telling me it was Eid tomorrow and to come by asap. It was 6:40pm, and I waited for prayer before heading out around 7:10pm on the bike over to the barber. The streets were insane, I thought it would be relatively empty like the days during Ramadan. The traffic would start usually around 8:00pm but I was mistaken and there was lots of traffic.
I was really enjoying myself during this ride with the cool weather but everyone was just insane. I could tell at least 30 – 40 cars were squeezing the middle lane on purpose so that I couldn’t get through and it was really annoying me but I was thinking let me get through this traffic calmly and then I take off from all these idiots.
I got to the barber and I had two cold 7-ups because it felt damn good to drink a cold drink. Really hit the spot, and my barber had so many customers. Because its one day early everyone wanted to be fresh for the next day, I didn’t really mind but he told me to come by since he won’t be sleeping because of so many appointments. I got a quick shave and cut, 13 mins I was out and ready to go! Now that was quick, 3 min head shave and 10 min work on the goatee, and I found that to be funny.
What a start to the Eid weekend, I’m just happy I could take a break from work for a little while. But I have a feeling that something is going to creep up on me. That aside this is going to be a nice Eid vacation and the weather is getting nicer which is good.
When leaving work I take different routes home depending if I have anything to do or if I see traffic. One of those routes is the fifth ring road, and as soon as I got on to it from the Malik Faisal Expressway I could see traffic wasn’t moving and I was wondering what exactly was going on. Then as I was approaching the end of the exit about 50 meters from the merge point I could see a car on its side in one direction and another car crashed into the barrier. I don’t know what exactly could have happened but I think one car may have flipped over the barrier, I’m just hoping that everyone survived and there were no fatal injuries. It seems it just happened because there weren’t any cops on the road and I could see them approaching, people were trying to help but I had no clue what was going on.
Spam is following us everywhere, and you can deal with it to a certain degree online. But I have only expereinced SMS Spam in Kuwait, and it is driving me nuts. I’m getting SMSs from MTC, Banks, Financial Institutions, Clothing Stores , and a lot of random places for things that I never subscribed too and its really getting on my nerves. There has to be a clause which requires the telecom company to keep our information private.
Whats happening with the wireless providers is that they sell SMSs by the bulk to people paying for advertising and then they flood our phones with these stupid ads. I wish I could sue them for telemarketing crap and then they would learn from that, too bad going to court means a 5 year get your case heard and another 10 to get it resolved.
I always have this tendency when I’m driving to get ahead or move away from traffic if I can, and if I can’t I go with the flow. I’m an aggressive driver but I make sure not to endanger the people around me like idiots especially in the mornings when there are families or drivers taking the kids to school. I don’t really worry about myself as much as I worry about doing something stupid that could injure a kid or do something worse. Even if I’m in a hurry I try to find a way around just to minimize the risk of something bad happening. I get really pissed off at these drivers that think they are McLaren on the damn road and they do something that causes this car full of kids to swerve or become scared. I chase after them sometimes and get in their way to see what they would do, at that point sometimes I become overly aggressive. It isn’t always the best solution but I do get worked up.
Now the when it comes to drivers its a different issue, some families trust drivers with their kids unconditionally. You don’t really know what the driver is doing until you see what they do, and when it is to do with my family I tend to grill the driver or to do other things to check them. I would make sure they know what are the parameters of what they can do when driving with the kids and what they can do, and also the consequences of anything stupid they do. I’m a fireball when it comes to kids, and I’m even worse when it has to do with my families kids, be it niece, nephew, cousin, or friends child. I’m just as protective, and I rarely get angry but when it comes to them my blood boils and all I want to do is rip the guys’ throat out if he does something stupid to put them in danger.
(This is a bit long)